Rockford Sun

Illinois has experienced a significant increase in government jobs over the past two years, raising concerns about sustainability and resource allocation. State Senator Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) suggests that funds used for these positions could be redirected to programs directly benefiting Illinois residents.

The state's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) released a report indicating that government job growth has surpassed private sector job creation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois added approximately 100,000 new jobs since 2023, with 44,600 being government positions at various levels. The annual cost to taxpayers for these roles exceeds $4 billion. Syverson highlighted that this brings the total number of government jobs in Illinois to 845,000, excluding education.

“If you add in the increased jobs in education of approximately 8,000, you get 52,000 new government jobs created in Illinois since 2023,” Syverson stated. “That means more than 50 percent of all new jobs created in Illinois since 2023 are local, state, and federal government jobs. Has anyone noticed 52,000 jobs worth of better government?”

Syverson questioned the necessity of these additional roles: “Think back. Do you remember local, state or federal leaders acknowledging any government jobs crisis in 2023? According to Gov. JB Pritzker and then-President Joe Biden, the people were getting the services they needed,” he said. “So why the urgency to create more than 50,000 additional government jobs? And these are just jobs in Illinois!”

While government employment rose by 52,000 positions over two years according to COGFA's report, private sector growth lagged behind. Construction saw an increase of only 10,400 jobs; manufacturing added merely 1,100; while financial and professional/business service-related sectors lost around 40,000 positions.

“Anyone who understands basic economics knows you cannot sustain an economy when government is growing at this level," Syverson remarked. "The other impact of adding this many jobs to any budget is it understandably results in less funding going to programs that directly serve citizens in Illinois.” He suggested reevaluating unnecessary roles from previous years as a potential solution: “If we take a page from the Federal government's playbook and roll back the jobs that were clearly not needed in 2023," he proposed "that will free up billions of dollars allowing us balance state budget without raising taxes fully fund core programs without having make cuts.”

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